The North Face Patrol 24 ABS is designed to inflate with nitrogren when the user pulls a ripcord. The airbags make the user more bouyant and hopefully will prevent him/her from getting buried. Do you think it would work?

They absolutely work and there are a number of studies that show airbags increase survivability significantly. One study claims the use of an avalanche flotation device has been found to reduce the relative risk of being killed by over 90%. Another study claims 97% survivability with airbag vs 14% with no avalanche equipment.Check out http://www.backcountryaccess.com/http://abs-airbag.de/en/ or http://www.snowpulse.com/en for other airbag manufacturers.